Cook Children's Health Care System Reviews

Pros

Cook Children's takes care of its employees (good benefits and bonuses), love my unit, love the staff, great benefits/401b matching/PTO accrual with tenure!

Cons

I have no downsides. As a nurse, I hear about what my friends deal with at adult hospitals, and I previously worked at Dallas Children's so I have that to compare it to. Cook has been the best job and I'm so grateful to be there!

Advice to Management

Listen to the staff concerns more on implementing big changes (i.e. cameras in the NICU;) None otherwise!

Pros

Positive environment with great overall attitude.

Cons

Pay is not as good as other facilities, but worth the positive environment.

Advice to Management

Put staff and patients first, money second. Unfortunately there seems to be an issue in healthcare management where everywhere the bottom line is money.

Pros

Friendly atmosphere, very kid-friendly décor and attitude overall. Good benefits package.

Cons

Dietitians do not write diet orders or TPN. No traditional multidisciplinary rounding.

Pros

They have some wonderful doctors and do many incredible things on the clinical side. Miracles are performed on a daily basis there.

Cons

Over the years, I saw employee morale continue to diminish and leadership was absolutely clueless as to why that was. As the system continued to grow, their growth in the infrastructure was non existent. In many cases, key departments were shrinking instead of growing. On any given day, across any department, you could bond with other employees over the stress level, the low morale and even the other jobs you were... looking for.

Advice to Management

Listen to the feedback you're getting from the worker bees ... the ones really doing the work, not middle management as that is where the biggest disconnect is. Senior leadership has absolutely no idea how the lower level employees feel because they're taking the word of middle management who are just trying to save face and not let anyone know about the pathetic morale going on across the entire system. Pay... attention to the information you're receiving on the employee surveys. Notice all of the key employees you've lost over the past couple years. and stop rationalizing all of the negative input you're getting from employees. You have lost valuable employees all because you've become to focused on the bottom line and trying to be like Children's Health. It's sad to see an organization that treats it's patients so well have absolutely no clue how to treat their employees.

Pros

Overall this is a great place to work. Positive environment and good benefits

Cons

Management/C-suite is a little behind the times (for non-clinical staff) in adapting to alternate work schedules and technology

Pros

Miracles performed daily for the patients and their families. The resources for them have no end - as it should be!

Cons

Favoritism and bias abound. No accountability for Leadership. People who have been around the organization long enough should remember what the culture was like. That culture needs to return. The morale has plummeted and made it impossible to "feel good" about working there. The Medical Center was always a whole different place, but IT is not treated the same way. The "processes" you're asked to follow are... only imposed on some, not others. Some are punished for non-existent "reasons". Complaints are not taken to heart. Once a person is perceived as weak or annoying, they get on a corrective action plan. I watched it done to so many people who were powerless to stop it. The things that were written about them in these actions plans that they were forced to sign was truly sad. The fact that they "care" for children and mistreat their parents who work there shows that they are only concerned about one thing - money.

Advice to Management

Replace upper management as a whole. Go back to the culture that was present when I first began my employment. No one ever contacted me about my exit interview. I was honest but fair in my interview and thought for sure someone would reach out. This makes me think that everyone is satisfied with the poor changes that have occurred.

Pros

Cook Children's celebrate staff often and self-promote how great they are, so all employees will believe it's true. CC is a good place to work and offers solid benefits. I worked in the health foundation where work-life balance was great and the department often has potential to be a great place to work, but turnover was often high, because of limited room for promotion and growth within the department. (They'd... rather hire new people than groom worthy current employees. This speaks to a lack of management skill that existed when I was in the department.) My coworkers were wonderful people who became close friends. They are what I miss most about working at CC.

Cons

Cook Children's is a non-profit healthcare system, but does not prioritize philanthropy. This is absurd. How many other non-profit organizations or facilities do not prioritize or champion philanthropy or donations?Few. It was hard to run into this problem again and again during my tenure with CC. If my memory serves me right then I think there were two systemwide meetings about core principles of Cook Children's... each year, with pyramids or circles to illustrate. And not once, over my five years was philanthropy ever included! It's a real shame. The health foundation staff do great work for the system and are stewards in the community positively promoting all that CC contributes, but executive leadership continues to treat the entire fundraising department as stepchildren of the system. Fundraising is only considered after the fact. The CDO made strides during my time, but he was fighting for a mile and given an inch. This definitely contributed to my leaving, along with the inconsistent management styles in the department (biggest reason for leaving) and inconsistent financial compensation of staff. Not sure how HR decided salaries, but I worked with a girl who was underpaid compared to her counterpart. (Also, the system must not prioritize HR either, since they must be too small because they're so slow with any turnaround on needs.)

Advice to Management

To foundation managment- offer a structure and real opportunities for internal staff to grow and be considered for promotions when gift officers leave. I now work in a gift officer-like capacity, but was not considered for the same at CCHF. See the potential in your people! And nurture it! You lose so much talented staff by not nurture the incredible people you have. I would have loved to stay. To executive... leadership- make philanthropy a pillar of the organization.

Pros

Competitive pay, generous PTO and benefits package

Cons

The attendance system is not flexible. It can be challenging for mothers with a more challenging home life.